M3.2 earthquake near Maricopa breaks ten-year quiet on South Cuyama fault

An M3.2 earthquake struck 24 km southwest of Maricopa, California on April 15, 2026 at 7:51 AM PDT (14:51:17 UTC). USGS placed the epicenter in Santa Barbara County at a depth of 8.8 kilometers, about 5.7 km from the mapped trace of the South Cuyama fault zone.

The event drew 3 "Did You Feel It?" reports submitted to USGS, with a community-reported intensity (CDI) of 3.8. ShakeMap modeled a maximum instrumental intensity (MMI) of 3.8. The low report count reflects the remote Cuyama Valley setting; the modeled intensity suggests light shaking at the epicenter.

USGS assigned a significance score of 161 on its internal 0–1000 scale. USGS PAGER did not produce a population-exposure estimate for this event.

USGS catalog data shows no other M3.2+ earthquakes within 20 km of this epicenter in the past 10 years — unusual for the location.

Santa Barbara County has a population of approximately 433,000.

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Event data

• Magnitude: M3.2 (Ml)
• Depth: 8.81 km
• Time: 2026-04-15 07:51 AM PDT (14:51:17 UTC)
• Coordinates: 34.9208°N, -119.6012°W
• County: Santa Barbara
• Nearest mapped fault: South Cuyama fault zone, 5.7 km
• USGS event page: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ci41441464